06 November 2018

Review: Big Display 8-Digits Electronic Calculator with American Flag



It's midterm election day! This isn't a political blog, but I want to capitalize on events with these reviews, so I spent some time choosing my most American calculator. Naturally, I selected the Big Display 8-Digits Electronic Calculator with American Flag, which comes to us from China.

BD8-DEC: POS
Like the most American things, the Big Display 8-Digits Electronic Calculator (BD8-DEC from here on out) is needlessly large. It's also cheap, deceptive, and easily broken. While on the surface it functions just fine, this comes at the cost of literally every other facet of this calculator.

To start, this thing is called the Big Display, but the display is the most standard size part of the calculator. There's a frame around the LCD that looks like it might have been a placeholder for a much larger display. It can be tilted for varying viewing angles, but there's nothing holding the tilt you want, so this feature is completely pointless. Also, the LCD doesn't have enough contrast to reliably show digits at many different angles.

Then there are the buttons. They feel like they could just fall out of the device if you turned it upside down. Pressing them at speed causes the entire calculator to rattle loudly, and like yesterday's calculator, there's a slight delay between press and appearance on the screen.

Gripping both sides of the calculator, it feels like a child could snap this thing in half with little effort. I would not feel safe leaving this on a desk with books or anything heavier than a pencil. I disassembled the calculator and found more inferior materials used for the interior.

Worthless plastic inside a worthless calculator.
And that's when my blood began to boil. I've addressed this in the Facebook reviews, but not here yet. I was recently made aware of fake solar cells in calculators, so I've been keeping an eye out for them. Today I found one. This is not a solar-powered calculator at all. It runs on a single LR1130 battery* hidden behind eight micro screws. The designers and manufacturers of this calculator had no intention of making a device that would last.

Removing the battery revealed how cheap even the metal holding it in place is. Much of this metal has been corroded. Every expense was spared to produce this awful device. The BD8-DEC can be found at pretty much any thrift store, and there's no wonder why. No one wants this crappy calculator. I don't even want it.

I resisted buying one of these for the longest time because I wanted to collect quality calculators. The only reason I finally picked one up was because I started writing these reviews, and wanted a large diversity of devices. I found it at Goodwill for $1.50, and I hate that it's part of my collection now. The creators of this calculator should be ashamed of themselves.

0/10 even though I don't rate calculators on a numerical scale.

Don't forget to vote today!

Closer view of fake solar cell.
Components inside look and feel cheap.
Complete view of the interior. 
 * I tried to test yesterday's calculator using this LR1130, but it doesn't have enough power to run it.



2 comments:

  1. I voted! It's interesting to hear about the fake solar power. I had one that must have been fake because it just stopped working one day. Keep up the reviews, I enjoy them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ok, so I couldn't stop laughing while reading this....a perfect description for a perfectly awful device....

    ReplyDelete